SEASON FOUR: PRE SEASON UPDATE

“We were simply just a free scoring side” – Zinedine Zidane

Results

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I was very happy with our performances during pre-season. Going into the tour across Europe, I told the players to just enjoy themselves. Go out and work on your fitness, results were not important to me. I wanted to gel the team and play attacking football.

The team did not let me down at all. They worked extremely hard and were very professional. The football we played was exceptional at times and very pleasing. I was happy with the amount of goals we scored.

The beginning of the tour did not provide is with strong opposition, I was fully aware of this. Never the less I want keen to ensure my team played football and played well as I knew bigger tests were yet to come.

As we landed back in England, we are too important games to finish off pre-season. French billionaires PSG came to Goodison Park, with a very strong line-up which included the likes of Sterling, Cavani and Thiago Silva.

I was very happy with the way we dismantled the PSG side and really showed our strength. The result shows how far we have come as a club. The team is a looking very strong and raring to go for the season ahead.

The momentum from this game continued into Tim Howard’s testimonial match, where we took on New York Red Bulls. The intensity in this game was surprising for a testimonial match. We were very strong and played very quick, attacking football. I was very happy to see Oxlade-Chamberlain grab a hatrick. He has settled very nicely at the club.

Player of Pre-Season

Granted, opposition was not its strongest but Romelu has scored twelve goals in just six preseason matches. This is an incredible record and he has shown why he has become one of the top strikers in the world. I am defiantly hoping for more of the same for the remainder. He has defiantly shown why clubs like Manchester United and FC Barcelona are after him.

I would like to wish everyone that has read this story or will be reading this a happy new year! Wishing you all the best for 2015 and hope you all had a great festive period! Thank you again for all the comments and views!

EVERTON LOSE CUP DOUBLE

“Not what we had planned” – Zinedine Zidane

Results

This was defiantly not how I envisaged our pre-season finishing off. We had the chance to collect two more trophies. We faced off with Chelsea yet again in the community Shield. After successfully beating Chelsea in last season’s FA Cup and Champions League final, the fans were expecting nothing but a victory.

I was very disappointed as I wanted this one for the fans. We played well through some parts of the game, however we just got beat by the better team. Both teams felt like they were not up to full speed, despite that Chelsea played some very good football and deserved their victory.

I was happy to see Hugo grab a goal, I know what the lad is capable of an he has been excellent for us already this pre-season. It was fully deserved.

Just days later prepared ourselves for the Super Cup match against Monaco, again in this match I was optimistic. I knew coming into this game we would be considered favourites after winning the Champions League. However I could see the lads were not quite up to it.

Pre-Season had taken it’s toll on the players, with only a matter of days separating the two games it was a tired performance from the boys. They gave everything they had, I cannot fault them for that. Our determination showed as we went one goal up early on through Lukaku.

Monaco thought on however, we managed to hold off their constant pressure until the 78th minute. The equalised, eventually taking the game into extra time. This was the last thing the players needed and I could see there was only way this game was heading. I could see the game slipping away from us but we were running out of time.

A later Juan Iturbe in the 110th minute sealed the victory for Monaco. Overall I was really disappointed that we did not come away with a single trophy over the pre-season period. We had a great opportunity to kick on from last season but it was not to be.

Hopefully between now and the start of the season the players can recharge and be raring to go when the Premier League comes around. We start the season with a home game against QPR followed by an away trip to newly promoted Watford.

Hi all, to those who are reading this or have read this Everton story or my more recent QPR story, I wanted to inform you i'll be taking a break from writing for a short while. I am expecting a busy couple of months ahead, finalising my uni application. Alongside that I feel a time away from updating my stories will do me good and recharge the batteries! I never expected this story to get so far, it may have been slow but I do wish to get it to 10000 views.

I have been struggling to continue my drive to update, likely just a knock on affect of doing too much too quickly. A break will hopefully kick start the boost I need to get back into the game.

I will be floating around on the site now and then but unsure when i'll next be updating my story, I want to thank all that have read and commented on story so far, no view or comment goes unnoticed. Im aware I am by no means one of the most creative writers on here, so any criticism will be greatly appreciated. I plan to be back one day, bigger and better.

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